his body went walking about quite empty,
without any sense in it—Arthur Machen (The White People)
on the hill I wondered what was true
—Arthur Machen (The White People)
between an infant boy calling
out and a car's squeal at a bedside Astir of Eaves
the thing utters soft soft
soft as the soft Nexus of Wind at Dusk
upon high—black and orange waters
troubled in outflow by a slow heft of fells
into sluices and frogways and culverts there
and creeps and collects
soft-feeding of becks downhill
(of long Peat fires they sing they rupt)
as vaccary walls they are shoved askew
—eek now soft ages of cattle
in all their goits adrift
[arrayed all thither golden in lichens]
of black mosses now of the wind's caress
are the Abiding Stones over Wycoller
declaiming of churns
and loud they gurgle as underground water
at night
and at night even at night's governance
and with slow Thunder unfolding of the sinks
the shakes and rills that brim the unquiet seeps
nursing with night the soft touching
the strokes and yields the waft the heave
of sphagnum of samphire
and samphire its listening Wainscots its secret ways
its faery-breath'd fluttering heather
purple its wainstones its aorta its races
its races updrifted in a velveteen of consumption
down the wing-wet years
—whoever then what cloven throat
sputtered there and spake and wefted
in that inwoven space such a Waiting and a Word
—and in all its slow-gathering Silence?
.
.
Every so often you write something that has a magical almost spellbinding quality. This is one of them.
ReplyDeleteGood use of 'thither' too ;-)
Amanda
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Amanda. I appreciate it. I removed my last reply on the grounds of it sounding bloody pretentious.
ReplyDeleteSteve.
Hi Steve,
ReplyDeleteVery nice work.
I am editor of Machenalia, from the Friends of Arthur Machen. I wouldn't mind publishing this poem. Only pay I can offer is a free copy though. Let me know if you are interested.
Gwil, I'd be delighted. I'm a big fan of Arthur Machen. Please feel free.
ReplyDeleteSteve.
Fantastic!
ReplyDelete